SORT IT OUT, NICO
Lauda tells Rosberg to step up and push Hamilton all the way
NIKI LAUDA’S red cap stood out like a beacon on the dull, grey tarmac of the biggest, most soulless paddock in all Formula One. The three-time world champion is colourful, candid and carefree. When your face is the charred remains of having nearly burned to death at the wheel of a Ferrari, why not throw caution to the wind or, in Shanghai’s case, the smog?
Lauda, now chairman of Mercedes F1, aimed his first verbal grenade at his driver Nico Rosberg, who moments earlier had stood in front of him rotating his shoulders and about to play keepie-uppie to warm up for yesterday’s second practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix.
Rosberg ended that session, as he did the first, behind Lewis Hamilton (below), his in-the-groove world champion team-mate who also markedly outperformed the German in the first two races, in Australia and Malaysia.
Of course, not long after these words reach your breakfast tables in the shires, Rosberg may buck up and take pole, but it would be something of a surprise, not least to Lauda, if he did.
‘Yes, Nico is definitely a little bit behind Lewis,’ said the Austrian.
‘He has to sort himself out. It is not anything I can talk to him about. I don’t know why — he is driving as well as was. He will know what he has to do, and he must do it himself.’
Rosberg is supremely professional. There is no lack of effort on his part. It is more that his confidence seems to have been shaken, whereas it was so strong in the early and mid parts of last season. Then Hamilton put down the hammer, changing the dynamic for both men.
At least Rosberg is not the watching neutral’s only hope of a contest breaking out this season, after Ferrari shocked everyone by winning a fortnight ago.
Nobody was ever more pleased to see Sebastian Vettel wagging his finger in celebration than fans whose own digits were poised over the television remotes’ off- switches, so jaundiced were they by the prospect of Mercedes’ seemingly endless hegemony.
As Bernie Ecclestone joked, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff could have the legend, ‘ The man who killed Formula One’, engraved on his tombstone.
Lauda, a long- time friend of Ecclestone, has no time for sentiment. ‘Even if Ferrari winning makes Bernie happy, I will still be upset,’ he said.
‘The priority for me and Toto and Paddy (Lowe, the technical director) is to try to win every bloody race. It is our mission.
‘I don’t care about the politics or what is good for Vettel or Ferrari. It is not my responsibility to make the sport more interesting. My worry for us is that Ferrari won so early in the season.
‘That gives them a lot of momentum. For an Italian team, momentum can be very important. ‘The Italians are emotional and it works best for them when they have a blend of
English, Germans and Italians. They have that now (James Allison, a British engineer is their technical director). Vettel is a four-time world champion and so is someone to look up to. They have a combination of everything.’
Most observers thought Ferrari’s win in Malaysia might be a one-off created by the absurdly hot weather. But the evidence from practice is that the Scuderia may also be contenders in the considerably cooler Shanghai climate.
Even though they appear not to be as quick over one lap, they look strong, possibly stronger than Mercedes, on a long run.
‘Qualifying doesn’t really worry us,’ said Lauda. ‘But they will be close on race pace.
‘They have made a big step up with their engine from last year to this, and I believe their horsepower is the same as ours.’
That was a big, honest and uplifting claim three races into a season that was being written off as a processional yawn.